Chapter 32

Simmons sat drinking her tea at her work desk, knowing she would have to finish work for the night soon. Most people had already left that evening but she'd kept at her work diligently, as she might have done in school, but mostly because she found the work fascinating, not because she felt the need to overwork.

Raina comes in the room, seeing the light still on. She smiles seeing Simmons, and walks towards her, a cup of coffee in her hands. "Simmons, I see you're here late, you know you can go home for the night." Professor Raina says.

"Yes I know, I just wanted to finish a few things." Simmons takes off her safety glasses and opens up a file on her laptop. "You see Professor Raina, the specimens DNA is quite similar to that of a human, but as I dig deeper I can see that there is an anomaly to it. I think if we were to expose the specimen to a particular chemical, than perhaps it would trigger a reaction that would allow the DNA to stop hiding behind human properties." Simmons hands over a clipboard to Professor Raina. Her eyes were wide with shock as she reads over the material Jemma had written.

"We only gave you the old DNA samples a few days ago and you've already discovered this." Raina shook her head. "My gosh, Simmons, I think you're in need of a promotion. Being an intern is not a good name for you." Raina looks through the clipboard.

"I was hoping I could get some recent blood samples, and examine them personally, instead of looking over the old files. I mean maybe the components have changed with age."

Raina hands the clipboard back to Simmons. "Tomorrow morning, I'll have someone set it up for you. I think you might even deserve you're only personal lab. Excellent work, you really are meant to for this, I'm happy I chose wisely with you."

Raina sips her coffee. "Simmons I have a question I need to ask you."

Jemma shrugs her shoulders back, taking off her lab coat. "Yes Professor Raina?"

Raina gives Simmons a fascinated look. "If you had to choose between Science and a friend, what would you choose?"

Simmons closes her laptop, her notes written and already and stored on a USB.

"Wow that's a hard question, guess it depends on what I was studying. If what I was studying could help my friends, I'd choose Science over the friend." Simmons smiles at Raina, but Raina frowns as if that wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"I see." She says clearly. "Goodnight Jemma, I'll see you tomorrow." Raina leaves the room and Simmons starts packing up her work station

What an odd question, between a friend and science.

If it were Fitz.

Simmons blushes thinking about Fitz, and their last encounter. She'd refused to check her phone since they left in fear of what he might have left on her messages.

Putting her things away in a briefcase Simmons gets ready to leave. Leaving the lab Simmons notices that the door to an office was open, a colleague of hers who was working on the specimen along with the rest of the staff. Simmons stops by, seeing a man in a suit as hard at work as she'd just been. "Can I help you?" He asks, furiously typing away at a keyboard.

"I just thought I should tell you it's 11o'clock." Simmons tells the man. "And it's kind of late to be working. Usually when it hits 11, I know to stop." The man stops typing.

"And you are?" He asks, pulling his spiny chair back.

"Jemma Simmons, sir." The man taps his chin, his pale skin clear and smooth.

"Ah well my names Doctor Bakshi." He greets, giving the motion for Simmons to come forward. "It's always nice to have fresh talent here; I've heard good things from Raina about you." He sticks out his hand, and Jemma shakes it. The man lets go and takes a sip of a beer on his desk. "Helps me work late hours." He gulps the rest of the drink. "But I suppose you're right 11o'clock is quite late to be working, it's just with the girl just arriving a few days ago—"

"Girl, you're sure the specimen is female?" Jemma interrupts.

The man Bakshi throws his beer in the trash. "Specimen feels weird to call her that. Yes indeed she is female, in fact sometimes I doubt if she's even of alien descent."

Jemma frowns. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Right you're an intern; I guess you wouldn't know what she looks like." Bakshi sits down again and pulls up some things on his computer. "I don't have a recent picture yet since she's only been here three days, but here's an old photo." Jemma moves over so she's looking over Bakshi shoulder. She almost gasps when she sees the photo.

Was that Skye?

The resemblance was there, but Simmons couldn't tell for sure.

It could have been anyone, and even though it looked like Skye, it was just a child. Children all looked different but close to the same. It couldn't be Skye; Skye was back at the Academy. Besides looking at it closer it looked less like Skye, this girl was more pale, with such a frown on her face she couldn't imagine it to be Skye.

Besides this was an alien right?

Scientist couldn't just lock up humans, or little children. It must just be taking on this appearance like her research notes were suggesting.

But still.

"Does it always have this form?"

"Only to us, apparently in China when she was first discovered she had a different appearance of some sorts, but I'm not entirely sure on the details. In fact I'm not even sure if the higher ups will keep me working here." He sighs taking the photo off his laptop, and closing the lid. "Honestly I'm working this hard so they'll let me keep my job."

Simmons tries to get the picture of the child out of her head, but she kept picturing the similarities between her and Skye.

It couldn't be right?

Wow this Tuesday feels lonely without AoS. So Simmons has seen a picture of Skye, now will she discover that Skye is actually at the facility? Who knows XD Guess you will just have to keep reading to find out.